


One Step

by LadyCara



Series: Wings of Gold [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 06:58:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6646834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyCara/pseuds/LadyCara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His kiss is unlike everything she has ever imagined. It’s a question, a plea, an unshakable truth, and she answers him in kind. </p><p>A Nine/Rose first time set after The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit in an AU in which Nine never regenerated, but can be read as Ten/Rose as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Step

It’s just one step. Most of the time she doesn’t even think about it, just crosses the threshold and leaves Earth or the soil of an alien planet behind. Only this time it’s more.

She takes one step from the storage room of the tiny space ship into the place she calls home, and her life changes forever.

She closes the doors behind her and turns around. He is standing at the console, staring at one of the monitors as if his life depended on it, his fingers gripping the console so hard that his knuckles are white. His posture is tense, and she is certain he doesn’t even see whatever the monitor is displaying.

“Doctor?” Her voice sounds strange in her own ears, trying to drown out the words that keep repeating themselves in her mind.

_The valiant child..._

He turns around, slowly, like a man who knows he is doomed. His expression is inscrutable, and for a long moment he just looks at her.

_...will die in battle..._

There is something in his eyes she has seen before, but it has always vanished quickly. She doesn’t know how to describe it. It’s almost as if he is asking her a question neither of them dares to voice.

_...so very soon._

Her feet move out of their own volition, and eventually she is standing in front of him, near enough to touch, unable to tear her eyes away from his. She is spellbound.

For an immeasurable amount of time neither of them moves.

“Rose,” he croaks, and his voice draws her even nearer. She takes another step, and now her clothes are grazing his with every breath she takes. The tension between them is almost unbearable.

She looks at him solemnly, waiting for him to shake off this weird mood that has come over him and step back, as he always does.

He doesn’t.

Slowly, almost as if against his will, he cups her cheek with his left hand, to reassure himself that she is real. Then he bends down and captures her lips with his.

His kiss is unlike everything she has ever imagined. It’s a question, a plea, an unshakable truth, and she answers him in kind.

Her arms come around his neck, pulling him closer. She doesn’t know what is happening, why it is happening, but she doesn’t care. She has lost him so many times already, almost lost him today. She doesn’t want this to stop. Not ever.

How they make it to a bedroom she will never know, shedding clothes on the way, exchanging frantic kisses, but eventually she ends up on a bed, the Doctor looming over her.

He enters her body without hesitation.

_The valiant child..._

His touch is like fire and ice, burning her, marking her soul as his.

_...will die in battle..._

Even as the wave is building she can feel that time is running out.

_...so very soon._

She wants to cling to this moment like she is clinging to him, but time is slipping through her fingers like sand.

She urges him on, needing more of him, all of him, and he complies, driven by the same need.

Eventually she tumbles over the edge with a soft cry, drawing him along.

When she comes to her senses again the first thing she registers is him holding her in his arms, almost too tight to be comfortable. He doesn’t say anything, just holds her close.

“I love you,” she whispers, almost afraid to break the silence, and his grip on her tightens even more.

She doesn’t make any promises about forever. She knows she doesn’t have to. He already knows she’ll stay as long as fate will let her, although she can hear a countdown ticking down to zero in the back of her mind. Something is coming.

“I...” He stops, unable to finish the sentence.

She looks him in the eyes, the unfathomable depths conveying a truth he can’t voice.

“I know,” she says.


End file.
